Though Ferrari seemingly lacked tempo on the Purple Bull Ring, the Scuderia accomplished the 2 quickest tyre modifications of the Austrian Grand Prix with the quickest having solely taken 1.95s. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo delivers his newest evaluation.
The Spielberg spherical has been a really troublesome race weekend for the Scuderia. The group introduced a complete set of upgrades to the Spanish Grand Prix, however the upgraded SF-24 has not delivered the outcomes the group had hoped for.
This pattern continued on the Purple Bull Ring with Ferrari having dropped right down to fourth place within the pecking order because it was unable to maintain up with Purple Bull, McLaren and Mercedes neither in qualifying trim or in race trim.
Nonetheless, the Italian outfit put in an excellent efficiency within the pit lane, having delivered the 2 quickest tyre providers of the complete race. The Italian squad serviced Charles Leclerc’s automotive throughout his second cease below two seconds (1.95s). The second-quickest cease additionally belonged to Ferrari (2.07s).
The primary phase of Saturday’s qualifying was the closest Q1 within the historical past of Method One with the hole having been 0.798s between first and final driver. Equally closely-matched was the battle for the quickest cease behind Ferrari.
Purple Bull and McLaren have each accomplished a 2.10-second tyre cease whereas Alpine delivered two 2.20-second tyre service.RB perfromed a fast tyre change which took solely 2.25s whereas Mercedes’ quickest cease required simply 2.31s.
Whereas the efficiency on observe was reasonably disappointing, @ScuderiaFerrari’s pit crew actually delivered in Austria. #AustrianGP #F1 #DHLF1 pic.twitter.com/0gxQsBvddp
— DHL_Motorsports (@DHL_Motorsports) June 30, 2024
Regardless of Purple Bull’s quickest pit cease, Max Verstappen’s tyre providers have been removed from excellent. The Dutchman elected to finish the Austrian Grand Prix with a two-stop technique.
He bolted on a set of laborious tires on Lap 23, and this primary pit cease was unusually lengthy for the quickest crew in Method 1 at 2.73 seconds however was nothing in comparison with the scenes that adopted later through the second cease.
The usually lightning-fast Purple Bull mechanics made a whole mess of the cease which took 6.59 seconds after the wheel nut on the RB20’s rear left wheel refused to budge. To make issues worse, Verstappen then locked up on his out lap.
In consequence, Lando Norris was ready to attract inside 1.5 seconds of him after a extra regular, 2.90 second cease. An epic battle for the lead ensued with Norris making repeated makes an attempt to attempt to get forward with laborious braking maneuvers. Verstappen reported a scarcity of grip whereas Norris had issues sticking to trace limits, for which he later acquired a 5-second penalty.
After which got here the inevitable. On Lap 64, in Flip 3 on the strategy to Schönberg straight, Verstappen and Norris made contact, slashing open tires on each vehicles. Norris needed to park up his McLaren whereas Verstappen limped to the pits to modify to softs, his cease taking 3.04 seconds this time round. He then completed the house race of his Austro-British group in P5.
“We made a whole mess of every little thing in the present day. All of it went fallacious,” stated Max Verstappen, brazenly laying the blame at Purple Bull’s door.
Other than the cease that took too lengthy, the timing of the tire change later within the race was additionally an issue for him, as a result of he bought caught in backmarker visitors. “As I see it, all of it started to unravel with technique, after which got here the pit stops which have been an absolute catastrophe. We gave away lap time to the opposition free of charge – six seconds in the middle of two stops! And then you definately’re again, racing once more,” famous the championship runaway chief.
F1
